


Sammy Gets A Fish Boyfriend

by phantomthief_fee



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:00:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22081459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomthief_fee/pseuds/phantomthief_fee
Summary: Sammy goes out to play music in his boat and somehow ends up getting into a relationship with a merman.
Relationships: Wally Franks/Sammy Lawrence
Kudos: 39





	Sammy Gets A Fish Boyfriend

[@lt-lemonade](https://tmblr.co/mZDARpoiyqs84fL5fo3KPhQ) did this cool [Mermaid AU](https://lt-lemonade.tumblr.com/post/189789339311/i-made-a-mermaid-au-for-hell-of-it) picture and I wanted to write it.

* * *

Sammy wasn’t a huge fan of fishing. 

Alright, maybe that wasn’t fair. He did like fishing. Just not for his dinner or anything. He enjoyed sitting out on the water in his boat, just him and the waves. He didn’t care if he caught any fish. It was enough to just be alone in the silence. He didn’t much care for cleaning and gutting fish either. It was far too messy for him. Susie always teased him about that. 

“Why do you go out there if you don’t want to catch fish?” She often asked while poking his cheek. “Seems kind of pointless to me.”

“Give him a break,” Jack would then say. “Peace is hard to find.”

Times like those, Sammy wondered why he hadn’t gotten a house of his own. Then again, he did enjoy sharing a home with Jack and Susie. It certainly made paying rent easier when it was split three ways. Chores were easier too. But that was beside the point. 

In any case, fishing served as an escape for him. And what he was escaping today was Susie’s continued attempts to matchmake him. The two had dated for a time before both realizing they were gay and mutually breaking up. Susie had found herself a girlfriend, Allison, but Sammy remained alone. Susie, ever a bit of a worrywart, was concerned. Sammy had a tendency to isolate himself and he didn’t have many friends. So, she’d recently begun trying to set him up with various men in an attempt to get him a boyfriend. 

Sammy appreciated the thought, but if he was going to get a boyfriend he wanted to do it himself. Most of the men hadn’t exactly been winners either. Susie had set up another date that day and Sammy had snuck off as quickly and quietly as he could. He was planning on telling Susie that he wanted her to stop this matchmaking, which he previously hadn’t because he’d been afraid of hurting her feelings. He needed to get up the courage to do it as well. 

So that was why he was out in his boat, his rod in the water and his banjo at his side. It was blessedly quiet, the only sounds around him the screech of the seagulls and the gentle lap of the waves. Sammy tapped his foot against the bottom of the boat as a song surfaced in his mind. It was a song from the record Susie had gotten him for his birthday. He hummed to himself a bit, his head bobbing from side to side as he listened to the music in his head. Eventually, he set his rod aside, picking up his banjo and plucking out the tune while the words spilled from his lips. 

He quickly lost himself in the song, oblivious to everything but himself and the music. These were the moments he lived for. 

Suddenly, a voice broke him from his reverie.

“You sing good!” 

Sammy shrieked, dropping his banjo and almost capsizing the boat. His head whipped around as he tried to locate the source of the voice. It didn’t take him long to find it. 

A guy was leaning on the right side of his boat. He was pale-skinned and freckled, with long and luxuriously wavy ginger hair. The guy wasn’t wearing a shirt and had wet hair plastered against his face, so Sammy initially assumed he’d somehow attracted the attention of a swimmer. Until he noticed the strange fins coming off the man’s face and arms and the red and green spots that were absolutely a part of the man’s skin. Then the man swept his hair out of his eyes, revealing they were abnormally large for a human _and the most beautiful shade of green Sammy had ever seen_. 

“Uh…hi?” Sammy said slowly, trying to fight the blush rising on his cheeks.

“Hi!” The man gave him a big smile, revealing a row of very sharp teeth. Sammy internally began to scream. This was a merman. He was talking to a merman. He was talking to an honest to goodness merman. 

Oh gods, the merman had told him he sang well. The merman had told him he sang well and was now watching him with the cutest little puppy dog smile. 

“It’s, um, it’s ‘you sing well’.” Sammy awkwardly cleared his throat. “What you meant to say is, ‘you sing well’.”

“Well, you sing well then!” The merman said, slapping his tail against the water in an adorably happy manner.

“Thank you.” Sammy smiled politely at him. “It’s nice to know my music is appreciated.” He awkwardly put his banjo aside, turning to more fully face the strange man. “My name is Sammy Lawrence. What’s your name?”

“Wally Franks.” The merman stuck his hand out to Sammy, revealing that he had webbing in between his fingers. “It’s nice to meet you, Sammy.”

“It’s nice to meet you as well.” Sammy shook his hand, finding it surprisingly warm if a bit slimy.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around before,” Sammy said after he withdrew his hand. “Do you live here?”

“Oh, I’ve been around,” Wally answered, shrugging slightly. “I’m just not supposed to show myself to humans for safety.”

“Like you’re doing now?” Sammy stifled a giggle. 

“…..Oh.” Wally’s face fell as he realized what exactly he was doing. “….Fuck.”

Sammy bit his lip. Oh gods, this guy was cute. He looked like a disappointed puppy.

“I’m not going to hurt you if that’s what you’re worried about.” Sammy tried to reassure him. “And I won’t tell anyone you’re here either.” He’d heard stories about people selling mermaids to traveling sideshows or vivisecting them, and he already knew that he absolutely did not want that to happen to Wally.

“Really?” Wally immediately perked up, his eyes sparkling hopefully.

“Really.” Sammy nodded. “I promise.”

“Thank you so much!” Wally practically launched himself into the boat to hug Sammy. Sammy was a bit startled by this, letting out a shout of surprise as he felt wet arms wrap around him in a rather strong hug. Wally may have **looked** scrawny, but he most certainly was not.

“Oh, sorry.” Wally laughed sheepishly as he pulled away. “Probably shouldn’t have done that. I just get a little carried away sometimes.”

“No, it’s alright. I didn’t mind.” Sammy gave him a reassuring smile. He could still feel the lingering warmth of Wally’s body pressed against his. His face felt uncomfortably warm. He needed to go home and try to sort his head out.

“Okay!” Wally smiled back at him, revealing his sharp teeth again. 

“I, uh, I should get going.” Sammy awkwardly cleared his throat again.

“Can you come back?” Wally asked. “Later, I mean. I wanna hear you sing again!”

“Of course,” Sammy immediately replied. 

“Awesome!” Wally gave him another hug, then jumped off the boat and disappeared into the water. 

Sammy sat there for a moment or two, dumbfounded. It almost felt as though he’d dreamed the whole encounter. But the evidence was there. His clothes were damp where Wally had hugged him. The boat smelled faintly fishy. But not fishy in the way that fish smelled fishy. It was a different kind of fishy. It actually smelled….rather nice.

Sammy quickly shook his head. He needed to get home. Susie and Jack would be worried if he was gone for too long. He shifted in the boat, picking up the oars and beginning to row back. He thought he caught a glimpse of ginger hair and orange scales as he rowed back, which made his heart begin to speed up and him row faster. 

“You were gone for quite a while,” Susie said when he returned. “Did you get caught up in playing again?” She was in the kitchen making soup. It was her day to cook, after all.

“Something like that,” Sammy mumbled, placing his banjo in its usual place in the corner of the living room. Jack, who was sitting on the couch, wrinkled his nose. 

“It smells like you dropped a fish on yourself again,” he said. 

“Oh, uh, yeah.” Sammy looked down at his damp clothes, still smelling of Wally. “I, uh, I caught a fish and it flopped all over me.”

“Let me guess, you didn’t happen to bring it home, did you?” Susie poked her head out of the kitchen, her lips pursed and her eyebrow raised. 

“It got away.”

“I thought so.” Susie’s serious face broke and she was unable to keep a giggle from slipping out. “Why don’t you go take a shower? Dinner will be done soon.”

“Yeah, okay.” Sammy nodded, heading to go change and take a shower. 

After that, Sammy started going out in his boat more and more frequently. Jack joked that Sammy had finally found a boyfriend, which always got a laugh out of Susie and made Sammy go beet red. It wasn’t too far from the truth. He was going out there to see Wally. He didn’t always see the merman, but more often than not Wally would find his way to Sammy’s boat, drawn in by the sound of the musician’s voice. 

After a few months of meeting, Sammy brought Wally a present. 

“What’s this?” Wally asked as Sammy handed him the object. It was a box, six inches wide and six inches tall, topped by the figure of a cartoon wolf playing the clarinet. There was a key on the back, the only part of the object that lacked the splotches of green rust. 

“It’s a music box,” Sammy explained. “I found it an antique shop ages ago and a friend of mine helped me to fix it so that it will play again.” He’d tried to clean it as best he could, but the rust was too deep in some places to be removed. 

He turned the shiny key on the back and the music began to play. The music was tinny and quiet, but beautiful all the same. Wally’s eyes widened, their green depths sparkling with wonder. Sammy smiled softly at Wally’s joy. That had been the reaction he’d been hoping for.

“You’re…giving this to me?” Wally asked when the music box finally fell silent.

“I am,” Sammy said. “I thought it’d be nice for you to have something to remind you of me.” 

Wally looked slowly up at him. He looked on the verge of tears. For a moment, Sammy was worried. Had he been wrong? Did Wally **not** like it? Then Wally’s face split in that goofy grin that Sammy so adored. 

“Thank you so much,” he said. “I love it!”

He launched himself into the boat again to hug Sammy. 

“I’m glad.” Sammy laughed out of relief, patting Wally’s back. Wally’s skin felt different than a normal human’s. Smoother. It was like touching a dolphin. Not that Sammy knew what a dolphin felt like. 

“I’m gonna find you a present,” Wally said when he pulled back. 

“You don’t need to do that,” Sammy tried to insist, but Wally wasn’t about to hear it. 

“No, you got me a really nice present, and now I’m gonna get you one,” he said. “It’s gonna be great!” 

Then, before Sammy could say anything, he pressed a kiss to Sammy’s lips and jumped back out of the boat with the music box under his arm. Sammy sat there, just as stunned as the first time he’d met Wally. 

Huh. Maybe Jack was right. Maybe he **did** have a boyfriend. 

**Author's Note:**

> Check out @It-lemonade's work on Tumblr! Their art is really good!


End file.
